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The Renaissance three-storey arcade loggia of the City Hall in Poznań served representative and communication purposes.

A loggia is an architectural feature that refers to a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall. Notably, Filippo Brunelleschi featured a loggia at the front of the Ospedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents) in Florence, Italy.

Definition[link]

Filippo Brunelleschi's Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence.

The loggia can also be an alternative to the portico. In this form it is mostly described as a recessed portico, or an internal room, with pierced walls and open to the elements. Occasionally a loggia is placed at the second floor level, above a loggia on the main floor; this is known as a 'double loggia'. Loggias sometimes were given significance in a facade by being surmounted by a pediment.

The main difference between a loggia and a portico is the role within the functional layout of the building. The portico allows access to the inside from the exterior, and can be found on vernacular and small scale buildings. The loggia is accessed only from inside, making it a place for leisure. Thus, it is found mainly on noble residences and public buildings.

Villa Godi by Palladio. A loggia is the focal point in place of a portico in the centre, and used again at each side of the structure as a corridor.

A classic use of both is that represented in the Mosaics of Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo of the Royal Palace to which it was Chapel.

Ravenna's Ostrogoths VI century Royal Palace.

Examples[link]

Today, a loggia can be a small, often ornate, summer house built on the roof of a residence to enjoy cooling winds and admire the view. They are typical of Italian architecture and were especially popular in the 17th century. They are prominent in Rome.

• Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa contains three distinct sets of dorms connected by loggias. The main quad of the Stanford University campus prominently features loggias, as do the University Center and Purnell Center for the Arts at Carnegie Mellon University, which frame a quad known as the Cut.
• In Chester (United Kingdom) town centre a number of timber framed buildings dating from Tudor to Victorian periods have ground-floor loggias, called the Chester Rows.
• In Russia, a loggia is a recessed balcony on apartment blocks.^[1]
• A loggia was added to the Sydney Opera House in 2006.
• At Minoan Hagia Triada, there are several loggia, the column bases of which still remain. These were built ca. 1400 BCE.^[2]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Curl, James Stevens (2006) (paperback). A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 880. ISBN 0-19-860678-8. 

See also[link]

Look up loggia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Media related to Loggias at Wikimedia Commons

• Peristyle
• Portico
• Verandah

Robert Loggia (born Salvatore Loggia;^[1] January 3, 1930) is an American actor and director.

Early life[link]

Loggia, an Italian American, was born on Staten Island, the son of Benjamin Loggia, a shoemaker, and Elena Blandino, a homemaker,^[2] both of whom were born in Sicily, Italy.^[3][4] After studying at Wagner College and journalism at the University of Missouri (class of 1951) and serving in the US Army, Loggia began a long career as a supporting player in movies, on stage and television.

Career[link]

Loggia was a radio and TV anchor in Southern Command Network in the Panama Canal Zone. Loggia first came to prominence playing real-life American lawman Elfego Baca in a 1958 series of Walt Disney television shows. He starred as the proverbial cat-burglar-turned-good in a short-lived series called T.H.E. Cat. In 1972 he played Frank Carver on the CBS soap opera The Secret Storm.^[5] His many television credits include appearances on Frasier, The Bionic Woman, Overland Trail, Target: The Corruptors!, The Eleventh Hour, Breaking Point, Combat!, Custer, Columbo, Ellery Queen, Gunsmoke 1965 episode-Chief Joseph,Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angels, The Rockford Files (three times as three different characters), Magnum, P.I., Quincy ME, The Sopranos, Monk, Oliver Stone's miniseries Wild Palms and Little House on the Prairie.

His film roles include An Officer and a Gentleman, Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771, based on the Air New Zealand Flight 103 incident, Scarface, Prizzi's Honor, Over The Top, Independence Day, Necessary Roughness, Return to Me, Armed and Dangerous, and Big (for which he won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor).

In 1985, Loggia was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of crusty private detective Sam Ransom in the thriller Jagged Edge. He was nominated for an Emmy in 1989 for his portrayal of FBI agent Nick Mancuso in the TV series Mancuso, FBI, a follow up to the previous year's miniseries Favorite Son. Loggia appeared as mobsters in multiple films including Sykes in Disney's Oliver & Company (1988), Salvatore "The Shark" Macelli in John Landis' Innocent Blood and Mr. Eddy in David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997) and The Don's Analyst (1997).

In 1998, Loggia appeared in a television commercial lampooning obscure celebrity endorsements. In it, a young boy names Loggia as someone he would trust to recommend Minute Maid orange-tangerine blend; Robert Loggia instantly appears and endorses the drink, to which the boy exclaims, "Whoa, Robert Loggia!"^[6] The commercial was later referenced in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle in which Loggia made a guest appearance as "Grandpa Victor" (for which he received his second Emmy nomination); Loggia drinks some orange juice, then spits it out and complains about the pulp. In a similar vein, Loggia has been parodied on an episode of the show Family Guy titled "Peter's Two Dads." Loggia also played a violent mobster named Feech La Manna on a few episodes of the series The Sopranos.

In addition to his role in Oliver & Company (1988), Loggia has had several other voice acting roles. A recurring role on the Adult Swim animated comedy Tom Goes to the Mayor, as crooked cop Ray Machowski in the video game Grand Theft Auto III, as Admiral Petrarch in FreeSpace 2, as the narrator of the Scarface: The World is Yours game adaptation, and in the anime movie A Dog of Flanders (1997).^[7]

In August 2009, Loggia appeared in one of Apple's Get a Mac advertisements. The advertisement features Loggia as a personal trainer hired by PC to get him back on top of his game.

On October 26, 2009, TVGuide.com announced Loggia joined the cast of the TNT series Men of a Certain Age.^[8] The role had him teaming up again with his Necessary Roughness co-star Scott Bakula.

In 2010, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in recognition of his humanitarian efforts.

On December 17, 2011, Loggia was honored by his alma mater, University of Missouri, with an honorary degree for his career and humanitarian efforts.^[9]

In 2012 Loggia portrayed Saint Peter during his final imprisonment in The Apostle Peter and the Last Supper.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Robert Loggia at the Internet Movie Database
• Robert Loggia at the Internet Broadway Database
• Robert Loggia at the Internet Off-Broadway Database

Licio Gelli (born April 21, 1919) is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2). He was born in Pistoia, Tuscany.

Fascist volunteer[link]

During the 1930s, Gelli volunteered for the "Black Shirts" expeditionary forces sent by Mussolini to Spain in support of Francisco Franco's rebellion,^[1] and subsequently became a liaison officer between the Italian government and the Third Reich, with contacts including Hermann Göring. He participated in the Italian Social Republic with Giorgio Almirante, founder of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI).^[2][3]

After a sales job with the Italian mattress factory Permaflex, Gelli founded his own textile and importing company.^[1][3]

After World War II[link]

Gelli collaborated with American and British intelligence agencies after World War II. Gelli also joined the neofascist MSI, which gave him parliamentary immunity. In 1970, during the failed Golpe Borghese, he was delegated the role of arresting the Italian President, Giuseppe Saragat.^[4] As grand master of the Propaganda Due (P2) masonic lodge, Gelli had ties with very high level personalities in Italy and abroad, in particular in Argentina. The Argentine Chancellor Alberto Vignes drafted with Juan Perón, who had returned from exile in 1973, a decree granting Gelli the Gran Cruz de la Orden del Libertador in August 1974, as well as the honorary office of economic counselor in the embassy of Argentina in Italy.^[5] According to a letter sent by Gelli to César de la Vega, a P2 member and Argentine ambassador to the UNESCO, Gelli commissioned P2 member Federico Carlos Barttfeld to be transferred from the consulate of Hamburg to the Argentine embassy in Rome.^[5] Licio Gelli was also named minister plenipotentiary for cultural affairs in the Argentine embassy in Italy, thus providing him with diplomatic immunity.^[5] He had four diplomatic passports issued by Argentina, and has been charged in Argentina with falsification of official documents.^[5]

During the 1970s, Gelli brokered three-way oil and arms deals between Libya, Italy and Argentina through the Agency for Economic Development, which he and Umberto Ortolani owned.^[6]

As grand master of Propaganda Due, Gelli allegedly assumed a major role in Gladio's "strategy of tension" in Italy, starting with the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing. Gladio was a clandestine "stay-behind" operation sponsored by the CIA and NATO to counter communist influence in Western European countries; it has been involved in terrorist false flags operations in Italy.^{[7][8][9][10]}

In 1990, a report on RAI Television alleged that the CIA had paid Licio Gelli to foment terrorist activities in Italy.^[11] Following this report, which also claimed that the CIA had been involved in the assassination of the Swedish Prime minister Olof Palme, then President Francesco Cossiga requested the opening of investigations while the CIA itself officially denied these allegations.^[12] Critics have claimed the RAI report to be a fraud because of the inclusion of testimony from Richard Brenneke, who claimed to be a former CIA agent and made several declarations concerning the October surprise conspiracy. Brenneke's background was also investigated by a U.S. Senate subcommittee, which dismissed Brenneke's claims of CIA employment.^[13] On November 23, 1995, the Court of Cassation (Corte di Cassazione) convicted Licio Gelli (grand master of P2), Francesco Pazienza and SISMI officers Pietro Musumeci and Giuseppe Belmonte of diverting investigations in relation to the Bologna Massacre.

The 1981 raid & the P2 list[link]

Licio Gelli's downfall started with the Banco Ambrosiano scandal, which led to a 1981 police raid on his villa and the discovery of the P2 covert lodge. On March 17, 1981, a police raid on his villa in Arezzo led to the discovery of a list of 962 persons composed of Italian military officers and civil servants involved in Propaganda Due (also known as "P2"), a clandestine lodge expelled from the Grande Oriente d'Italia Masonic organization.^[14] A list of alleged adherents was found by the police in Gelli's house in Arezzo in March 1981, containing 962 names, among which were important state officials, some important politicians and a number of military officers, including the heads of the three Italian secret services.^[15] Future Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was on the list, although he had not yet entered politics at the time. He was then just starting to gain popularity as the founder and owner of "Canale 5" TV channel, was listed as a member of P2.^[16]

The national scandal that ensued was quite thrilling, given that most of the most delicate affairs of the republic were controlled by Gelli's affiliates. A Parliamentary Commission, directed by Tina Anselmi (of the Christian Democratic party), found no evidence of crimes, but in 1981 the Italian parliament passed a law banning secret associations in Italy. Gelli was expelled from GOI freemasonry on October 31, 1981, and the P2 scandal provoked the fall of Arnaldo Forlani's cabinet in June 1981 ^[17]

The P2 lodge did undoubtedly have some form of power in Italy, given the public prominence of its members, and many observers still consider it to be extremely strong. Several famous people in Italy today (starting with the top TV anchor-man Maurizio Costanzo) were affiliated with P2. Among these Michele Sindona, a banker with clear connections to the Mafia, has been clearly associated with P2. In 1972, Sindona purchased a controlling interest in Long Island's Franklin National Bank. Two years later, the bank collapsed.^[18] Convicted in 1980 in the USA, "mysterious Michele" was extradited to Italy. Two years later, he was poisoned in his cell while serving a life sentence.^[19][20] The P2 membership list was authenticated, with a few exceptions, by a 1984 parliamentary report.^[21]

On the run, Licio Gelli escaped to Switzerland where he was arrested on September 13, 1982 while trying to withdraw tens of millions of dollars in Geneva.^[17] Detained in the modern Champ-Dollon Prison near Geneva, he managed to escape^[22] and then fled to South America for four years. In 1984 Jorge Vargas, the secretary general of the Union Nacionalista de Chile (UNACH, Nationalist Union of Chile, a short-lived National Socialist party ^[23]) and a former member of the Movimiento Revolucionario Nacional Sindicalista (National-Syndicalist Revolutionary Movement ^[23]), declared to La Tercera de la Hora that Gelli was then in Chile.^[24]

Finally, Gelli surrendered in 1987 in Switzerland to investigative judge Jean-Pierre Trembley.^[25] He was wanted in connection with the 1982 collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano ^[26] and on charges of subversive association in connection with the 1980 Bologna railway station bombing, which killed 85 people.^[26][27]

He was sentenced to two months in prison in Switzerland,^[28] while an Italian court in Florence sentenced him on December 15, 1987, in absentia, to 8 years in prison on charges of financing right-wing terrorist activity in Tuscany in the 1970s.^[29] Gelli had already been sentenced in absentia to 14 months in jail by a court in San Remo for illegally exporting money from Italy.^[29]

Extradition to Italy and trials[link]

Switzerland eventually agreed to extradite him to Italy, but only on financial charges stemming from the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano. Gelli's extradition in February 1988 required a high-level security apparatus, including 100 sharpshooters, decoy cars, a train, road blocks and two armored cars to transfer him to Italy.^[30] In July 1988 he was absolved of charges of subversive association by a Bologna court but was presented with a five-year prison term for slander, having side-tracked the investigation into the 1980 bombing of the Bologna train station. However, stipulations connected to his extradition prevented him from serving time.^[31][32] Two years later, an appeal court threw out Gelli's slander conviction.^[33] A retrial was ordered in October 1993.^[34]

In 1992 Licio Gelli was sentenced to 18 years and six months of prison after being found guilty of fraud concerning the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano in 1982 (a "black hole" of $1.4 billion was found). The Vatican bank, Istituto per le Opere di Religione, main share-holder of the Banco Ambrosiano, consequently had a "black hole" of $250 million. This sentence was reduced by the Court of Appeal to 12 years.

The year 1992 also saw the beginning of the trial of 16 members of the P2 Masonic Lodge, which included charges of conspiracy against the state, espionage, and the revelation of state secrets.^[35] In April 1994, Gelli received a 17-year sentence for divulging state secrets and slandering the investigation, while the court threw out the charge that P2 members conspired against the state;^[36] Gelli's sentence was reduced, and he was placed under house arrest two years later.^[37]

In April 1998, the Court of Cassation confirmed a 12 year sentence for the Ambrosiano crash.^[38] Gelli then disappeared on the eve of being imprisoned, in May 1998, while being under house arrest in his mansion near Arezzo.^[38] His disappearance was strongly suspected to be the result of being forewarned. Then, finally, he was arrested in the French Riviera in Cannes.

Two motions of no confidence were made by the right-wing opposition (the Northern League and the ex-Christian Democratic splinter groups CDU-CDR), against the Justice Minister, Giovanni Maria Flick, and the Interior Minister, Giorgio Napolitano, stating that Gelli had benefited from accomplices helping him in his escape. They also made reference to secret negotiations which would have allowed him to reappear without going to prison. But the two ministers won the confidence vote.^[39]

Police found $2M worth of gold ingots in Gelli's villa.^[40][41]

A few years after the Ambrosiano scandal, many suspects pointed toward Gelli with reference to his possible involvement in the murder of the Milanese banker Roberto Calvi, also known as "God's banker", who had been jailed in the wake of the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano. On July 19, 2005, Gelli was formally indicted by Roman Magistrates for the murder of Roberto Calvi, along with former Mafia boss Giuseppe Calò (also known as "Pippo Calò"), businessmen Ernesto Diotallevi and Flavio Carboni, and the latter's girlfriend, Manuela Kleinszig. In his statement before the court Gelli blamed people connected with Calvi's work in financing the Polish Solidarity movement, allegedly on behalf of the Vatican. He was accused of having provoked Calvi's death in order to punish him for having embezzled money owed to him and the Mafia. The Mafia also wanted to prevent Calvi from revealing how the bank had been used for money laundering.

Gelli has been implicated in Aldo Moro's murder, since the Italian chief of intelligence, accused of negligence, was a piduista (P2 member).

Connections to Argentina's military junta[link]

A fugitive in Argentina for many years, Licio Gelli publicly declared on repeated occasions that he was a close friend of Argentina's leader Juan Peron, although no confirmation ever came from South America, and he often affirmed, without ever explicitly explaining why, that this friendship was of real importance for Italy. Several members of the Argentine military junta have been found to be P2 members, such as Raúl Alberto Lastiri, Argentina's interim president from July 13, 1973 until October 12, 1973, Emilio Massera, part of Jorge Videla's military junta from 1976 to 1978, and José López Rega, the infamous founder of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance ("Triple A").

Nomination for Nobel Prize in Literature[link]

In 1996, Gelli was nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.^[2]

2003 interview[link]

In 2003, Gelli told La Repubblica that it seemed that the P2 "democratic rebirth plan" was being implemented by Silvio Berlusconi:

Every morning I speak to my conscience and the dialogue calms me down. I look at the country, read the newspaper, and think: "All is becoming a reality little by little, piece by piece. To be truthful, I should have had the copyright to it. Justice, TV, public order. I wrote about this thirty years ago... Berlusconi is an extraordinary man, a man of action. This is what Italy needs: not a man of words, but a man of action.

He talked of many Italian politicians. Of Fabrizio Cicchitto he said he knew him well (è bravo, preparato - "he's good and capable"). With regard to Berlusconi's program for the reform of the judicial system, he boasted that this had been an integral part of his original project. He also approved of Berlusconi's reorganization of TV networks.^[2]

Film[link]

In December 2007 Licio Gelli signed a life rights agreement with New York based producer Gabor Harrach. The movie (working title 'Conspirator') is in development.

See also[link]

• Propaganda Due
• Strategy of tension
• Operation Gladio
• Dirty War
• Hands of Perón

References[link]

• Ginsborg, Paul (2003). Italy and Its Discontents, London: Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 1-4039-6152-2 (Review Institute of Historical Research | Review New York Times)

External links[link]

• Site of Italian newspaper "Il Piave" where Gelli writes regularly

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Indro Montanelli
Born	April 22, 1909 Fucecchio, Italy
Died	July 22, 2001 (2001-07-23) (aged 92) Milan, Italy
Occupation	Journalist and Historian

Indro Montanelli (April 22, 1909 - July 22, 2001) was an Italian journalist and historian, known for his new approach to writing history in books such as History of the Greeks and History of Rome.

Generally considered one of the greatest Italian journalists of the 20th century, he was among the 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 years named by the International Press Institute in 2000.^[1]

Career[link]

Indro Montanelli Bassi was born at Fucecchio, near Florence.

Throughout his career he retained an idiosyncratic and particularly undiplomatic style, even when this made him very unpopular among his peers and employers. This is particularly well illustrated in his book La stecca nel coro (which translates as "Going against the current") which is a list of leading articles he composed between 1974 and 1994 in the newspaper Il Giornale which he founded and directed after being sacked from the very prestigious Corriere della Sera, in October 1973. It was during this experience, in 1977 that the Red Brigade terrorists shot him four times in the legs in the streets of Milan.

The 1920s and 1930s[link]

Montanelli's career began with a Law degree from the University of Florence in the early 1920s, where he wrote a thesis on the electoral reform of Benito Mussolini's fascism. Allegedly, in this thesis, he maintained that rather than a reform it amounted to the abolition of elections, which goes some way to illustrate the ambiguous nature of the Italian fascist censorship. According to him, it was a short experience of the French cultural atmosphere in Grenoble, while he was taking language lessons, that he realised that his true vocation was that of the journalist.

Montanelli began his journalistic career by writing for the fascist newspaper Il Selvaggio ("The Savage"), then directed by Mino Maccari, and in 1932 for the Universale, a magazine published only once fortnightly and which offered no pay. Montanelli admitted that in those days he saw in fascism the hope of a movement that could potentially create an Italian national conscience that would have resolved the economic and socioeconomic differences between the north and the south. This enthisiasm for the fascist movement began to wane when in 1935 Mussolini forced the abolition of the Universale along with other magazines and newspapers that expressed opinions on the nature of fascism.

But it was in 1934, in Paris that Montanelli began to write for the crime pages of the daily newspaper Paris Soir, then as foreign correspondent in Norway (where he fished for cod for a bit), and later in Canada (where he ended up working in a farm in Alberta!).

From there he began a collaboration with Webb Miller of the United Press in New York. While working for the United Press he learned to write for the lay public in an uncomplicated style that would distinguish him within the realm of Italian journalism. One lesson he took to heart from Miller was to "always write as if writing to a milkman from Ohio". This open and approachable style was something he never forgot and he'd often recall that very quote during his long life. Another indelible American moment occurred while teaching a course. Someone had asked him to explain the composition that Montanelli had just read. Montanelli told him he'd repeat it since he clearly didn't understand... Hitting the table, the red-faced student cut him off and angrily told him, as a matter of fact, that if he hadn't understood Montanelli's composition, then it was Montanelli who was the imbecil! [and needed to change it]. It was then that he realized that he, who had come from the authoritarian regime of fascist Italy, had just had a confrontation with democracy. During this time Montanelli conducted his first interview with a celebrity: Henry Ford - who surprised him by admitting he did not have a driver's license. During the interview, surrounded by American art depicting pastoral and frontier subjects, Ford began to reverentially talk about the Founding Fathers. Looking at the decor, Montanelli astutely asked him how he felt about having destroyed their world. Puzzled, Ford asked what he meant. Undaunted, Montanelli pressed on that the automobile and Ford's revolutionary assembly line system had forever transformed the country. Ford looked shocked, and Montanelli realized that, like all geniuses, Ford hadn't had the slightest idea of what he'd really done.

The war in Abyssinia[link]

When Mussolini declared war on Abyssinia with the intent of making Italy an empire (Second Italo–Abyssinian War), Montanelli immediately abandoned his collaboration with the United Press and became a voluntary conscript for this war. He believed then, along with many Italians of the time, that this was the chance for Italy to bring civilization to the 'savage' world of Africa, an enthusiasm that Montanelli blamed also on his passion for the works of Rudyard Kipling. In spite of these initial passions, it was this very experience that led to Montanelli's biggest change of mind with regards to Italian fascism.

This amounted to the realisation that the Abyssinia experience was none other than a pretext to elevate Mussolini on an ever higher pedestal, a show more than the substance of a revolutionary change of the colonization and civilization of Africa. With few exceptions, such as the defense of Gondar, the conquest had been uneven and uneventful. One of the fascist leaders of the time, Farinacci, not finding enemies, began throwing hand grenades in the lake of Ascianghi: one exploded in his hand resulting in a silver medal award.

Montanelli began writing about the war to his father who - in Montanelli's total ignorance - sent the letters to one of the most famous journalists of those times, Ugo Ojetti, who published them regularly on the most prestigious Italian newspaper: Il Corriere della Sera.

The Spanish Civil War[link]

On his return from Abyssinia, Montanelli became foreign correspondent in Spain for the daily newspaper Il Messaggero, where he experienced the Spanish Civil War on the side of Francisco Franco's troops. In this period he shared a room with Kim Philby, who, decades later, would reveal himself to the world as one of the greatest Soviet mole spies that ever existed. One day he disappeared. Years later Montanelli received a mysterious note saying: "Thanks for everything. Including your socks". It was Philby. After the capture of the city of Santander, Montanelli wrote that '(...) it had been a long military walk with only one enemy: the heat'. This judgement contrasted with the propaganda of the times that painted that 'battle' as a glorious bloodshed on the side of the Italian contingent. In fact the only casualty he noted, but never reported, by Montanelli was a single death in the Alpini regiment caused by a mule kick that threw the unfortunate trooper down into a dry river bed. For this article he was reimpatriated, tried and expelled from the Fascist party and from the 'journalist book'. When, in the trial, he was asked why he had written such an unpatriotic article, he replied: "Show me a single casualty of that battle: because a battle without casualties is not a real battle!" The trial ended with a full absolution.

[edit] Foreign correspondent with the Corriere della Sera

The position taken against fascism led him to first serious disagreements. He was taken off the ticket of the Party and he did nothing to get it back. So to avoid the worst, in 1938, the then minister of culture, Giuseppe Bottai, offered Montanelli the job of director of the Institute of Culture in Tallinn, Estonia, and lecturer in Italian at the University of Tartu. In this period the then director of the Corriere della Sera, Aldo Borelli, asked Montanelli to engage in a 'collaboration' as foreign correspondent (he could not be employed as journalist, because this had been forbidden by the fascist regime). Montanelli began to correspond for this newspaper from Estonia and Albania (during the Italian annexation of this country).

Invasions of Poland, Baltic countries and Finland[link]

On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland. Montanelli was sent to report from the front in a Mercedes accompanied by German state functionaries. In the vicinity to the city of Grudziądz the car was stopped by a convoy of German tanks. On one of these stood Hitler himself, but a few feet from Montanelli. When Hitler was told that the only person in casual clothes was Italian, he jumped out of the tank and eyeing Montanelli like a madman, began a ten minute hysterical speech followed by military salute and exit. Albert Speer, who had also been in the convoy with fellow artist Arno Breker, corroborated the story in 1979. Apart from this episode - which Montanelli was forbidden to report - there had been little to report because the invasion of Poland was completed so rapidly that it was over within weeks. It was allegedly him who reported about the Skirmish of Krojanty and created a myth from it.

Montanelli was not welcome in Italy, and decided to move to Lithuania. The joint German-Russian invasion of Poland instinctively told him that more was brewing on the Soviet Union border. His instinct was correct because shortly after his arrival in Kaunas - the seat of Lithuanian government - the Soviet Union declared an Ultimatum to the Baltic Republics. At this point Montanelli continued to travel towards Tallinn as it was his wish to see the last of a free and democratic Estonia, which was soon invaded by Soviet Union. At this point, Montanelli was not popular in Italy, nor Germany because of his pro-Estonian and pro-Polish articles and had been expelled by the Soviet Union for being a foreigner. So he was forced by the events to cross the Baltic sea and reach Helsinki.

In Finland Montanelli began writing articles about the Lapps and the reindeer, although this was not for long as Molotov had made requests on the Finnish government for the annexation of part of the Finnish land to the Soviet Union. The Finnish delegation, headed by Paasikivi, had refused to give in to these requests and on their return it was clear that war was in the air. Montanelli was not able to write about the details of the talks between the Soviet and Finnish delegations, as they were shrouded in strict secrecy, although he was able to interview Paasikivi, who was happy to fill him in on everything except for the content of the talks.

Throughout the so-called Winter War which ensued, Montanelli wrote hotly pro-Finnish articles both from the front and from bomb-stricken Helsinki writing about the almost mythical enterprises of the battle of Tolvajarvi, and of men like captain Pajakka who with 200 Lapps successfully confronted 40,000 Russians in the region of Petsamo. Back in Italy Montanelli's stories had been followed with great enthusiasm by the public, but not so enthusiastic was the response of the fascist leaders who were committed to an alliance with the Soviet Union. When Borelli, director of the Corriere della Sera, had been ordered to censor Montanelli's articles, he had had the courage to reply that "thanks to his articles the Corriere increased its sales from 500,000 to 900,000 copies: are you going to reimburse me?". When the Winter War was over, and the non-aggression pact was signed between the Soviet Union and Finland, Montanelli was personally thanked by the elusive Mannerheim himself, for writing in favour of the Finnish cause.

Invasion of Norway[link]

Before his return to Italy Montanelli witnessed the invasion of Norway, and was arrested by the German army for his hostility towards the German-Italian alliance. He escaped with the help of his friend Quisling, and made a run for the north of the country where the English and the French were disembarking their troops at Narvik. He was met by the one-eyed, one-armed Major Carton de Wiart who explained that there were no more than 10,000 Allied troops in Norway - many of them not even trained for battle. Nobody seemed to know where their garrison was. The British wanted to go inland and attack the Germans, but the French wanted to stay put and consolidate their positions. After having seen the clockwork invasion of Poland by the German troops, this disarray was a worrying sight. When the Germans began bombing these positions the Allies were forced to embark once again and beat a hasty withdrawal to England.

The Balkans and Greece[link]

With Italy's entrance in the war (June 1940), Montanelli was sent to France and the Balkans; then he was assigned with the responsibility of following the Italian military campaign from Greece and Albania as correspondent. Here he recounted to have written little:

« I remained at that front various months, writing almost nothing, a small reason was because I fell ill with typhus and a huge one because I refused to push as a glorious military campaign the quaking pummeling that we caught down there.»^[2]

An article published on the September 12th, 1940 issue of Panorama was considered "defeatist" by the censors of Minculpop (Ministero della Cultura Popolare), who in turn ordered the closure of the periodical.

Condemned to death[link]

After witnessing war and destruction in the Balkans, and the disastrous Italian invasion of Greece, Montanelli decided to join the partisan movement against the fascist regime, by joining the Partito d'Azione. Here he met with socialist Sandro Pertini (who would be president of Italy from 1978 to 1985).

He was eventually once again captured by the Germans, tried and condemned to death. In the Milan prison of San Vittore he met with Mike Bongiorno, who would later become one of the most famous quizmasters of Italian TV. In the prison he also made the acquaintance of General della Rovere, who was said to have been arrested while on a secret mission on behalf of the Allies. The reality was that this man was a thief called Giovanni Bertoni, a spy for the Germans. But Bertoni was so taken in by the military character he was playing that he refused to relay any information to his German masters and was executed like a real general. After the war Montanelli was to devote a book to this incident (Il generale Della Rovere, 1959, later turned into an award winning movie directed by Roberto Rossellini and starring Vittorio De Sica).

Salvation came at the end of 1944 with the help of unknown conspirators who arranged for his transfer to a prison in Verona. The transfer was then transformed into a dash for the Swiss border. The identity of these conspirators remained a mystery until decades later, when it appeared that it had been the result of collusion by several agencies. Among them, Marshall Mannerheim allegedly put pressure on his German allies ("You are executing a gentleman" he said to von Falkenhorst, the commander of the German troops stationed in Finland) resulting in Berlin's opening of an inquiry.

In 1945 while hiding in Switzerland, he published the novel Drei Kreuze, later appeared in Italian with the title Qui non riposano (Here they do not rest). Inspired by Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey, the story begins on September 17, 1944 when a Val d’Ossola priest buries three unknown corpses and commemorates them with three anonymous crosses.

Last years[link]

Montanelli continued his career at the Corriere della Sera newspaper in Milan, famously authoring deeply sympathetic articles from Hungary, during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. His first hand reportages inspired him to write the play, I sogni muoiono all'alba (Dreams Die at Dawn), later adapted to film. From the mid-1960s, after the death of the paper's proprietors, Mario and Vittorio Crespi, and the serious illness of the third brother, Aldo, ownership of the paper was vested upon Aldo's daughter, Giulia Maria. Under her tight control (earning her Montanelli's moniker the czarina), the daily took a sudden turn to the left. This new launch took place in 1972 with the abrupt dismissal of the director Giovanni Spadolini. Montanelli expressed a cutting indictment of the procedure in an interview on L'espresso, declaring: "A director is not sent away like a thieving domestic" and, turning to the Crespi family, he branded their "authoritarian, bullying junta ways that they have chosen in order to impose their decision".

After subsequently breaking definitely with Corriere della Sera he founded and directed the Milan daily Il Giornale in 1973, together with Enzo Bettiza.

On 2 September 1977, Montanelli was shot four times in the legs by a two-man commando of the Red Brigades, outside the Milanese head-office of the Corriere della Sera. His friend and surgeon was amazed on how "four shots could hit those [long, thin] chicken legs of his and still completely miss a major artery or nerve bundle". He credited his indoctrination as a child in the Balilla fascist youth and its mantra, "to die on your feet", for saving his life. He maintained that had he not held on to the railing during the incident the fourth shot would have surely hit him in the stomach. In his typical ironical and satirical vein he also thanked Il Duce. In a petty instance of insult to injury the "Corriere della Sera" dedicated an article to the incident omitting his name from the title ("Milan [...] journalist kneecapped").

When Silvio Berlusconi, the then proprietor of Il Giornale, entered politics and founded a new right-wing party Forza Italia, Montanelli came under heavy pressure to switch his editorial line to a position favourable to Berlusconi. Montanelli never hid his bad opinion of Berlusconi: "He lies as he breathes", the journalist declared. In the end, protesting his independence, he founded a new daily, for which he resurrected the name La Voce ("The Voice"), which had belonged to an historical newspaper run by Giuseppe Prezzolini. La Voce, always an elitist paper, folded after about a year, and Montanelli returned to Corriere della Sera. In 1994, Montanelli was awarded the International Editor of the Year Award from the World Press Review.

From 1995 to 2001 he was the chief letters editor of Corriere della Sera, answering a letter a day on a page of the newspaper known as "La Stanza di Montanelli" ("Montanelli’s Room"). Montanelli spent his last years vigorously opposing Silvio Berlusconi’s politics. He was mentor to a significant group of colleagues, followers and students including Mario Cervi, Marco Travaglio, Paolo Mieli, Roberto Ridolfi, Andrea Claudio Galluzzo, Beppe Severgnini and Roberto Gervaso.

He died on July 22, 2001 at the La Madonnina clinic in Milan. The following day, Corriere della Sera published a letter on its front page: "Indro Montanelli's farewell to his readers".

References[link]

1. ^ "World Press Freedom Heroes: Symbols of courage in global journalism". International Press Institute. 2012. http://www.freemedia.at/awards/world-press-freedom-heroes/. Retrieved 26 January 2012. 
2. ^ Tiziana Abate, Indro Montanelli, "Soltanto un giornalista" (Only a Journalist).

Marco Mengoni
Marco Mengoni in Latina, 2010.
Background information
Born	(1988-12-25) 25 December 1988 (age 23) Ronciglione, Viterbo, Italy
Occupations	Singer
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Sony Music

Marco Mengoni (born December 25, 1988)^[1] is an Italian singer. He rose to fame in 2009, after winning the third season of Italian talent show The X Factor.^[2] The following year he ranked third in the 60th Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Credimi ancora".^[3] As of January 2011, he has sold a total of 220,000 copies in Italy with his first two EPs and his live album Re matto live.^[4] In 2010 he became the first Italian artist to win the Best European Act award at the MTV Europe Music Awards. His first full-length studio album, Solo 2.0, was released in September 2011.

Early life[link]

Marco Mengoni was born in Ronciglione (Viterbo, Italy).^[1] Before starting his singing career, he graduated in industrial design and he started studying Languages in Rome,^[5] occasionally working as a barman.^[1]

He started singing at the age of 16 and two years later he funded his first band.^[5]

Music career[link]

[edit] X Factor

In 2009 he auditioned for the third series of the Italian talent-show X Factor. His category (16-24 year olds) was mentored by Morgan, and Mengoni was chosen to be among Morgan's top 4 contestants and perform on the live shows.^[6]

During the live shows, he sang songs in many very different styles, including AC/DC's "Back in Black", Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" and "Billie Jean", Mia Martini's "Almeno tu nell'universo", The Beatles' "Helter Skelter", Prince's "Kiss", David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" and Nina Simone's "My Baby Just Cares for Me". As a result, he received the congratulations and admiration of many famous singers such as Mina,^[7] Giorgia,^[7] Elisa,^[8] and Adriano Celentano.^[7]

He was announced as the winner on 2 December 2009, winning a 300,000 € recording contract.^[9]

[edit] After X Factor: Dove si vola and Re matto

His first EP, titled Dove si vola, was released on 4 December 2009.^[10] It contained his first single "Dove si vola", another new song titled "Lontanissimo da te", and 5 covers previously performed during the X Factor contest.^[11] The EP peaked at number 9 in the Italian Albums Chart^[12] and was certified Platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry.^[13]

In February 2010 he participated in the 60th edition of the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Credimi Ancora", and finished third in the contest.^[14] "Credimi Ancora" subsequently peaked at number 3 in the Italian Chart^[15] and was included in Mengoni's second EP, titled Re matto that was released on February 17, 2010. The 7-track EP also contained the singles "Stanco (Deeper Inside)"^[16] and "In un giorno qualunque".^[17]

In 2010 he won the TRL award in the category "MTV Man of the Year"^[18] and the MTV Europe Music Award in the category "Best European Act", after being voted "Best Italian Act".^[19]

His first tour, the Re matto tour, started on 3 May 2010^[20] and consisted of 56 two-hour shows all around Italy.^[21] During the tour, he collaborated with the choreographer Luca Tommassini,^[22] who has also worked with celebrities such as Madonna and Michael Jackson. On tour Marco performed a wide range of covers in addition to his own material, including "Live and Let Die",^[23] "Satisfaction",^[24] "Mad World",^[23] "Proud Mary"^[24] and "Tears in Heaven".^[25]

A CD of the tour, along with a DVD, was released with the title Re matto live on 19 October 2010.^[17] The album peaked at number one in Italy^[26] and was certified Platinum.^[13]

[edit] Solo 2.0

On 2 September 2011 Mengoni released his single "Solo (Vuelta al ruedo)", preceding his first full-length studio album, titled Solo 2.0. Mengoni co-wrote most of the songs of the album,^[27] working with composers including Italian singers-songwriters Neffa and Dente.^[28] Influenced by electronic^[29] and rock music,^[30] the album also includes tracks featuring the Italian a cappella group Cluster and the orchestra directed by Fabio Gurian.^[29]

Released on 27 September 2011, Solo 2.0 debuted at number one on the Italian Albums Chart.^[31] To promote the album, Mengoni embarked on an Italian tour, the Solo 2.0 Tour, starting from 26 November 2011 in Milan.^[32]

Musical style and influences[link]

According to Il Corriere della Sera's Luca Benedetti, Mengoni has a typically soul voice, with pop rock tones.^[33] His tone was also described by Maurizio Porro as "a sort of captivating miaow".^[34]

In late 2009 he defined his musical style as "British/black".^[35][36] In several interviews, Mengoni has claimed that one of his most relevant influences is The Beatles.^[37][38] Mengoni also cited David Bowie,^[39] Michael Jackson^[40] and Renato Zero^[41] among his most relevant influences.